


Refugium

by Darth_Cannizard



Category: Joyeux Noël | Merry Christmas (2005)
Genre: Gen, World War I
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-26 13:54:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21375196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darth_Cannizard/pseuds/Darth_Cannizard
Summary: "But death replied: “I choose him.” So he went,And there was silence in the summer night." Siegfried Sassoon
Comments: 5
Kudos: 16





	Refugium

**Author's Note:**

  * For [xsunny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xsunny/gifts).

Jonathan Dale hates the Germans, or the Huns, as they are also called, from the bottom of his sorrowful and bleeding heart. They took his beloved brother from him. The two-day peace and, from his point of view almost perverse, fraternization between the Scots, French and German troops, stirs up this hatred even more. The fire that burns in him blazes so much that he wishes to kill every single german man,woman and child with his own bare hands. And so it is he who uses the opportunity and seriously injures the german Oberleutenant.

***

The Scottish and French troops gain reinforcements in the form of fanatical patriots in the days following the Christmas Truce. Audebert does not know how to deal with this situation. Fresh, pure faces, who have not really got to know the war in all its cruelty. They want to fight as fast as possible, shed german blood. He would like to explain to them what he has experienced so far, what killing means, what modern war really means, but he eventually gives it up. He finds no words to describe the horror and hopelessness that is in his heart.

The German Army Command is probably holding onto the opinion that a german soldier as such is a warrior worth several of his opponents and although the unit of Horstmayer has received no reinforcement, a part of their troops is sent to attack. With the foreseeable catastrophic consequences. Since their medic fell weeks ago and no new one was sent to them as a replacement, the Germans try to recover their wounded after the attack. Jonathan is a good marksman. He follows the selected target with his riffle, fires and then all of them witness a short cry, a red mist and see how Oberleutenant Horstmayer sinks to the ground hit above his heart. The silence that follows is deafening. Audebert closes his eyes for a moment. The emptiness in his heart is ringing and pulsing like a fresh wound. As if he was the one who was hit. Without consciously making a decision, he starts moving. His men try to hold him back, but he pushes them away from him. He walks slowly over the no-man's-land. Sinks to his knees beside the one he is told to hate, and who has become a friend in these two days. Nobody dares to shoot him. They are all like in a trance. No german Jonathan on the opposite side.

Karl is conscious. His face is distorted with pain. He gasps desperately for air. The pain has to be horrible. The blood is flowing so fast, Audebert thinks. It's so red ... he finds himself trying to stop the bloodflow with his gloved hand. "Let it be," says Horstmayer in French, "let me die, it will not be long." His voice is indistinct. "Medic!" Audebert calls into the silence. And then again. Dr. Bouvier gathers his courage and leaves the trench. "The bleeding must be stopped quickly and the bullet must be removed," he waits for Audebert's decision. Together with Ponchel they carry Horstmayer to the french trench. "You don’t need a translator, Bouvier," says Camille some moments later as Horstmayer regains consciousness, "he speaks fluently French."

The displeasure that follows this compassionate action is immense. Only those who have witnessed the Christmas Truce, understand it, the new ones, rumble in silence. No one dares to openly oppose him and say something, but Camille knows that some of the soldiers long to do so. He can’t diminish it.

Horstmayer goes back to his trench the next day, his wound bandaged, his left arm in a noose as not to strain the wound. He goes slowly and thoughtfully back to his trench. And again nobody shoots at him.

Camille keeps this memory in his heart. Deep buried and well guarded. Growled at from the patriotic part of his own subconscious.

Gradually, the Germans are decimated. When the next order to attack arrives, Karl realizes that this is their certain death. He takes on the kind of moral responsibility he believes in from the bottom of his heart. He will surrender to the enemy, and in return the rest of his unit may retreat into the hinterland. It does not seem to be clear to every one of his soldiers that this act means his death, that he is buying their freedom with his blood. Or maybe they realize it, but they do not want to see such an amount of sacrifice and courage. And they don’t want to be responsible for this. "You are a traitor to the Kaiser and our Fatherland and a deserter," one says to him and a few others nod. Karl finds it difficult to breathe because of the wound and his voice is very soft when he replies "I am still your commanding officer and if I give you an order, then you have to obey me and leave the responsibility for me to decide. My order is clear and tomorrow you will retire after my surrender. I have nothing more to say about it. "

The next day is sunny. The sky is radiantly clear, the cold is chilling. Horstmayer is slowly approaching the french trenches. His bandages are bloodsmeared, his beautiful face is deathly pale, but his eyes are an almost radiant blue and very clear. Audebert has him picked up by his people.

Since the Germans have withdrawn their troops, both the Scots and the French are leaving the trenches. They strengthen their defense, they chat, even play a little soccer together, the german trench is inspected and taken into possession.

The medic is worried about Horstmayer's condition. He needs medication and rest and both things are rare in the middle of a war.

It is a few days later and orders from the French Headquarters arrive. They are devastating in their clarity. Everything goes dark before Camille’s eyes as he reads them and then his eyes fill with tears, the letters bluring in front of his eyes.

Immediate execution. No mercy for the german officer.

"Where the hell is the upholding of the goddamn Hague Convention ?!" he thinks and feels a cynical laughter rising. The scene that unfolds before his mind's eye is full of cruelty. The injured Horstmayer on a stretcher, tied up, blindfolded, the stretcher then put upright, then the firing squad. The command to take position and then shoot. Shots are falling. Blood everywhere and Karl sinks back dead in his stretcher.

"We can’t let this happen," Audebert says later at the gathering he called forth. "He is a noble and kind man, a exemplary officer and soldier, he was our friend on these two days of peace, we can’t just allow ..." His voice breaks. "What can we do?"

There is a longer moment of silence.  
  
"There might be something," Mackenzie says after a while. "This case of Major Whitmore ..." He turns to the priest. Father Palmer nods.  
  
"What are you talking about?"

"A case that has become a precedent case because it refers to parts of the old english martial law."

"And this law is also practiced here in France," adds Palmer. "I read some documents about this before I went to war."  
  
"Are you going to tell me what you’re talking about?" Audebert gets impatient.  
  
"Something called ‘prisoner of war protective custody’. It is related to prisoners of war but also to civilian population on conquered territories.  
  
"So, we are talking about slavery here? About having another human being for property? "

"Basically yes," says Gordon. "But that would save him. If he were the property of an officer, then nobody could harm him. Neither the King of England himself nor your government. "  
  
"He will hate it. This is dishonor in its purest form ... mon Dieu. Is there no other solution? "  
  
"Only death," says Father Palmer, and that seals Karl's fate.

A few days later, a lawyer appears in the french trench accompanied by one Capitaine Dubois. The corresponding documents are signed in front of witnesses, the prisoner gets a scarlet armband, the sign of his new unfree status, and he is taken to the french hinterland and there to the nearest hospital. Camille is relieved. He could at least do one good deed in this most horrible of all wars and save another human being. At least he saved one.

***

Camille Rene Audebert survives the Great War. He returns home in November 1918 to his wife Anna and their son Henri. Karl Daniel Horstmayer, who until then lived in the household of the Audebert's, is released from enslavement and returns to Germany to his wife Christine.

The friendship uniting both men survives the war.

**Author's Note:**

> The scene Audebert sees as he envisions Horstmayer's execution is a scene from Stanley Kubrick's "Path of Glory. This is a scene I watched once in my life and couldn't forget it since.
> 
> You can talk to me on Tumblr: [Darth_Cannizard](http://www.darthcannizard.tumblr.com/)


End file.
